They were born equal!

India is under the surveillance of 33 crores god and goddesses. And I am a hardcore devotee of none. Neither do I consider myself to be an atheist for again god has given me the perfect reasons to have faith on him. However I believe in Gandhiji who said that it was apt to consider truth to be God rather than considering God to be the ultimate truth.

Getting a bit philosophical…..but who cares as life is all about it. You cannot ignore it! And the main motive of uttering such philosophy is that India at times is overshadowed with numerous beliefs and superstitions which turn out to be vague most of the times.

How long you will be ignorant of the fact that it’s the XY chromosomes of the men that determine the sex of the baby? It hurts when I see the women themselves are engaged in the accumulation of dowry on their sons’ wedding. If a girl drinks and smokes, people question their character. If a man drinks and beats his wife, India says –“Chalo yeh toh hota hai!” Come on, it’s a myth and there is a dire need to break it.

Don’t read Raja Rammohan Roy or Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar just as topics of History books. Centuries ago they initiated the fight against child marriage, sati and promoted widow remarriage. It’s a shame on our part that while the developed countries are moving towards gay rights and lesbian marriages, we are still somewhere in 17^th Century but with branded clothes and a posh lifestyle.

I belong to Northeast India. Well, here we do not witness dowry cases as such. In Assam, we have a ritual that at weddings, the bride cannot wear even a thread of her father’s house. Her clothes and jewelry are gifted by her in-laws. In Meghalaya, the youngest daughter of the family gets paternal property due to the age-old matriarchy. Nevertheless, we have to break the myth that women are totally safe here. As long as men possess the denial syndrome, women abuse in some form or other is ought to occur. Or else, there would have been no cases of witch-hunting in Assam or cases of rape and violence in Manipur.

Mythology, history as well as our present shows how women have greatly contributed towards the development of mankind and civilization. There is a Mother Teresa, a Kiran Bedi, a Irom Sharmila, a Sampath Pal and a Lata Mangeshkar in every soul. Just ignite your mind. Break free. Educate yourself and become economically independent. And if you cannot afford to study, then work and then study. Walk the extra mile, get the knowledge and know the world.

Well writing this stuff is easier than to redress the grievances of women folk. But I guess every effort counts. I hope we don’t allow patriarchy to stop us from enjoying our womanhood, what we have seen with our mothers, bitter but truth!

Women empowerment is the hottest topic of debate and discussion in recent times. It demands participation of women in economic, political and professional spheres. However I won’t recommend anyone to solely rely on government and NGOs to bring women abuse to a halt. You have loved your family a lot and they have hurt you a lot. So take the chance and move on. Holding on people and things will bring no good, but letting go may bring better upshot. But before that make a clear distinction between sex (biological) and gender (social construction)!

They say, “Sons are sons till they get their wives and daughters are daughters throughout their lives.” But I don’t believe so. At times we see things the other way round. So why not train your kids on ethics and equality from the very childhood rather than making them run after scores?

And at the end of the day, I promise to abide by whatever I wrote all this while for every change does begin at home. And this is the ultimate truth!